Chapter Twenty-Five
Corey
Corey settled behind her desk with Riley sitting in front of her. After talking with Keller down at the track, she hadn’t had time to change out of her workout gear. She wondered briefly if she smelled bad to Riley’s sensitive nose. She instinctively liked Riley, as she did Jasper. Riley was calm to Jasper’s crazy, but not in the cold way that Jace was, more in a sweet, soulful way.
“Okay, Riley, this shouldn’t take too long. A few questions then you can head to class.”
He grinned. “Take your time. I wouldn’t mind missing calculus.”
“I don’t blame you, math was never my strong suit either.” She relaxed back into her chair. “How long have you been playing baseball?”
“Ever since I was a kid, I started T-ball when I was four. It was me and my mom back then. She signed me up at the YMCA. I guess she figured I’d get to spend time with some dudes.”
“If you don’t mind my asking, what happened to your dad?”
“My real dad? He left right after I was born. Never really knew him. My mom married my stepdad when I was ten though. He isn’t real athletic, but he’s supportive of me playing ball. He was at every game in junior high and high school.”
“Well that’s good, that he supports you.” She studied Riley. He seemed comfortable but kind of dejected. “It must be hard, being away from your mom for such long stretches of time. Especially if it used to be only the two of you. You must be close.”
“Yeah, it’s hard. But this is a really great school. Guys dream of being able to play here. I’m lucky. My stepdad went to St. Leasing too. I guess it’s kind of a tradition in his family and they are the ones footing the bill.”
“What do you enjoy most about playing?”
“I don’t know, no one’s ever asked me that before.” He paused. “I like to play, but never really thought about why. It’s what I do.”
“What you do, not who you are.”
He shook his head. “Nah, I don’t need baseball to tell me who I am. I like to play ball, but I’m not delusional. I’ll graduate, maybe play some in college, but then I’ll get a nine-to-five like everyone else.”
“What about your teammates? How do you feel about them?”
“They’re all pretty good guys, I guess. Jasper is probably my best friend on the team. We’ve been friends since our freshman year.”
“Jace too?” She wanted some answers about twin number two. Wanted to know the rest of the team’s opinion of him. But she was treading a fine line because she couldn’t push too hard. She couldn’t make it obvious.
“I’m not that close to Jace, no one is really. He kind of keeps to himself. I’m sure he talks to Jasper, but he doesn’t go out of his way to hang out with the team.”
“I met with Jasper the other day and he said that Henderson grilled him for hours during his evaluation. Asked really personal questions. Did he do that with you?”
“Yeah, not as bad as he did with Jasper though.” Riley cracked his knuckles and folded his hands behind his head.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I mean, he asked me personal questions and everything. But I wasn’t in with him as long as Jasper was. I was waiting for Jasper, we had plans after his eval. I swear he had been with Henderson for over two hours. When they were done, Jasper was pissed. He got crazy wast…uh, he went and blew off some steam.”
Even though he had stopped himself from telling her, she got the picture. Henderson had grilled Jasper until he was livid, and then he went and took out his frustrations on a bottle. She shook her head, sharing probably more than Dom would condone. “I have no idea what Henderson was up to with you guys. I wish I could get a hold of him and ask. It makes me mad, to be honest.” She trailed off, her thoughts running wild again.
“So no one has talked to Henderson?” Riley went from relaxed to leaning forward in his chair, brows drawn together.
“Nope. He didn’t leave any notes or explanation or forwarding address. No one has heard from him. Did he ever say anything to y’all during your interviews that would make you think he was leaving?” Riley looked at her, his head slightly tilted to one side. Like he was internally debating something.
“He didn’t ever say anything to me about leaving. I never even talked to the guy outside of my eval appointment.” He took a deep breath. “Jace seemed really ticked that Henderson questioned Jasper for so long, which for Jace is saying something. That guy never shows emotion. He had his interview the day after Jasper’s. When he was done, he walked into the locker room and told us that Henderson would no longer be a problem for us. And then three days later, Henderson was gone. We never saw him again.”
Had Jace alluded to the team that he’d killed Henderson? Was he sticking up for his brother? Why? And what did he do? “What do you think Jace meant by that? That Henderson wouldn’t be a problem anymore?” Would he say what she was thinking? So many damn questions and no answers.
“I have no idea.” Riley stood up. “Everything I say in here, to you, it doesn’t leave this room, right?”
“That’s right.” She gestured to the notepad in front of her. “I sign off on you to play, but it’s a pass/fail type thing, they don’t ask for a lot of details.” She stood up as well, and walked around her desk until she was standing by Riley.
“We are a team, we stick together and stand up for our own. Jace isn’t, uh, well, he isn’t like Jasper. If Jace were to stick up for anyone? I think it would be for himself. Does that make sense?” Riley grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulder.
“It makes perfect sense, Riley, thank you. I really appreciate you coming in today. And thanks for running with me, I’ve really come to look forward to hanging with you guys.”
Riley put his hand on the door handle to leave but then paused. “You’re Coach Hardy’s, aren’t you?”
“Coach Hardy’s what?”
“His forever.” His smile faded slightly when he said the word forever.
“Uh, Riley, uh, it’s…” She stopped trying to get out the right words and took a deep breath.
“It’s okay. I won’t say anything to anyone. I can tell, you know? That you belong to him now. You smell different, almost like I can sense him in you.” He turned red, like he was embarrassed of the words he’d let slip.
“Can the other players sense it too?” She placed her hand on her throat, remembering that Jace and Jasper had both been on that track with them earlier.
“Nah. You have to be still and quiet to notice things like that. The other guys are always either talking or moving.” He reached for the handle again.
“Riley, no one can know.”
“Hey, don’t worry, miss. I’m assuming you know I can turn into a wolf. I know you’re mated to one. We’ll keep each other’s secrets.” He shut the door quietly behind him.
Wow. Okay, she needed to meet with all the coaches ASAP. She looked down at her watch. She still had two interviews to get through today. They were both underclassmen and should go pretty easy. She grabbed her cell and sent a text to Dominic.
Corey: Hey, I need you to have the guys meet us at the house before we go out for Linc’s bday.
Dominic: No.
Corey: Yes, I need to tell y’all about my talk with Riley.
Dominic: I wanted to do dirty things to you before we went out.
She was mated to a horny teenager. Was that part of it? Maybe they aged slower and therefore were immature longer.
Corey: Sorry, babe, it’ll have to wait ’til after.
Dominic: No.
Corey: Dom, I’ve had a long day and it’s only 11:30. Please text your friends.
Good god, could it really only be 11:30? It felt like it should be tomorrow already.
Dominic: Whatevs.
She was going to have to keep her phone on vibrate if they were going to keep texting. The ding was starting to give her a slight headache.
Dominic: Baby, I am so sorry about the PMS comment. You have every right in the world to be stressed right now. Please forgive me.
That was nice. Maybe she should reward him for apologizing and realizing the error of his ways. Also, she was bored and had another few minutes before her next eval showed up.
Corey: Out of curiosity, what kind of dirty things did you have in mind?
Dominic: You bad girl. You want to sext me? Let’s see…I’ve been daydreaming of your pretty little mouth around my cock. I’ve been hard all morning thinking about how warm and wet your mouth would feel. These basketball shorts are keeping me behind a desk.
So these “dirty things” he had in mind weren’t actually things he would be doing to her. Rather they were things he wanted her to do to him. Typical. And a blowjob, also typical. Obviously he had been listening to Too Short.
Corey: Mmmmm….I’m licking my lips thinking about it. I would love to wrap my mouth around your long hard cock.
Corey laughed. This was fun, not necessarily turning her on, but fun. Dummy was going to have to stop wearing those loose shorts to school every day. He tented basketball shorts so easily, she had seen it happen more than once over the last couple of days.
Dominic: Oh god, Corey. I’m so fucking hard right now. It hurts. I need you so bad. Baby, please come down to my office.
Corey: Sorry, no can do, my next eval is on his way…but maybe I could help you out from here?
It shouldn’t be too hard to help him out through texting, should it? He’s a dude. It couldn’t take more than a few minutes. Highly inappropriate though.
Dominic: Yes, baby, please. Help me. I’m as hard as a rock.
Corey: Oh Dom, the thought of you sitting there aching for me, only a few feet away…. It’s making me so hot, babe. Stroke yourself for me. Think of me sitting in my office doing the same thing.
Ha, like she would ever do that in the middle of the day in her office. But nothing seemed to get a guy going quite like the thought of a woman pleasuring herself.
Dominic: Corey, baby, you’re killing me, tell me how you feel, are you wet for me?
She couldn’t help but giggle as she typed.
Corey: Oh god yes, Dom, I’m so wet…oh god this feels so good.
Dominic: Use two fingers for me, baby, like I do. Make sure you’re ready for me, Corey, harder.
Holy crap, he couldn’t actually think she was sitting in her office masturbating. Could he? She shouldn’t laugh at him, but she couldn’t help it. There was a knock at her door. Shit. “Uh, come in?”
“Ms. Cooper? I’m Christopher Kelton, I’m here for my evaluation.”
“Of course, Christopher, please come in and have a seat. If you’ll give me one second to send a quick text, we’ll get started.”
Corey: Oh god, oh Dom, don’t stop, oh god don’t stop. Oh!!!! Thanks, babe, I’m done. See ya tonight!
She stuck her phone in her bag and began her interview.